Confessions of a Former Freeway Flyer
Keith Atwater

Imagine the California Highway Patrol hiring a thousand officers at an hourly rate without benefits to work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. Another thousand work only on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Both groups of officers, unlike their full-time brethren, advance only through cost-of-living adjustments. Now imagine any team of trained professionals from air traffic controllers to zoo biologists working a few hours a week at one site, then driving to another ­ using their cars as offices. Sound crazy? That's how about forty percent of all college teachers in America live and work!

I used to practice my profession that way, teaching English and history at several California colleges. After teaching two courses (the maximum allowed by law) at Sacramento City College, I'd zip to a class at Solano College, then teach two undergraduate courses at Cal State Sacramento on alternate days. We've been dubbed "freeway flyers," and the label fits. Many of my colleagues drive to and from Yuba College, Sierra College, Napa College, and UC Davis. Why do we fly the freeways? Because we want to do what we're trained to do ­ teach.

I have two master's degrees, and have taught junior and senior high school, not to mention unpleasant "drive through university" teaching experiences at National and Chapman. My fellow flyers, all with master's degrees, some with PhD's, many with publications, research, and business experience, make up close to half the labor force in two and four year colleges, according to our union statistics. We collectively teach most of the remedial, entry level, and undergraduate courses, grade most of the papers and tests, and interact with most of the students on any campus, even though we're crammed three or four to an office (if we get an office) for office hours (which we hold , though often unpaid). It's likely that you, your friends, or your children have been taught by part-timers, those temporary, non-tenured folks usually called "staff" in course schedules.

Ask college presidents why well over a third of their employees are part-time temps, and they'll say we have careers in the private sector and teach an occasional course as a kind of sharing of expertise or community service. Baloney! We are cheap labor. Most of us piece together several teaching assignments, often teaching the same number of courses as our tenured brethren (whom we outnumber) for literally half the pay. Unlike tenured professors, we are evaluated on our classroom performance every term; we live permanently without job security. Most of us scramble for what we can get ­- days, nights, weekends. A hundred full time teachers in the Los Rios Community College district in Sacramento (one of California's largest) ply their craft while two hundred with the same degree teach one or two classes and work toward their goal: a chance to interview for rare full-time openings. While some prefer working two days a week to supplement their spouses' incomes, many, perhaps most seek a career in college teaching.

Why then so few new hires? Shrinking budgets and enrollments? Actually, enrollment is skyrocketing. Students jam the hallways in long lines outside full classes, overflow beyond parking lot capacity, and race from waiting list to waiting list. And we freeway flyers keep on flying. Politicians, pundits, and parents cry out for "twenty first century education" -- higher standards, teacher training, exit exams, classroom computers. Meanwhile, part timers meet large classes, hustling to their cars with bulging briefcases of papers. If we all staged a walk out, the nation's colleges would virtually shut down.

So who wins and who loses? Clearly part-timers suffer in every area: salary, retirement, benefits, job security, status, recognition, not to mention mundane things like parking and office space. We also have limited participation in the colleges where we teach. In one instance, the American River College English faculty took a "bold leap" after rancorous debate and allowed each part timer one half a vote in department business! How invested will we be in student and academic life when we have no voice?

Students lose, too. They pay for courses from teachers who can't be reached, teachers with little time, little space, and little or no say in what and how they teach. How can students build relationships and discover their strong skill areas and passions when half their teachers are on the freeway? How will they get help? Good teaching happens in this egregious system mainly because we part-timers want to teach, we like to teach, we are trained to teach, and we're good at teaching. It's time our nation discovers the truth about the cheap, shoddy way much so-called higher education occurs.

So, if law enforcement, air traffic controlling, and most other professional occupations work far better with full time staffs, imagine how excellent college education could be if we flyers landed in permanent teaching positions ­ with professional salaries -- on one college campus!